By Wilfred Pilo
KUCHING, June 26: Training stints overseas for Sarawak’s Malaysia Games (Sukma) 2024 athletes have helped to elevate their performance to 80 per cent readiness now, reveals Deputy Minister of Youth, Sports and Entrepreneur Development Datuk Gerald Rentap Jabu.
Rentap, who is also Sarawak’s Chef De Mission, said this is good as it will help Sarawak to evaluate and gauge the final selection of athletes to represent the State and who will attend centralised training here in mid-July.
“So with 52 days to go the Malaysia Games (Sukma) 2024, Sarawak athletes are now in high spirits,” he said during a press conference on the latest developments concerning Sarawak Sukma athletes and venues at Studio UKAS here today.
Rentap elaborated that sending athletes for overseas training and exposure since last year was to ready them for Sukma as there were not as many competitions held post-Covid-19 pandemic.
“Like what the Sarawak Premier and my Minister said, we want to be a runaway champion and as the CDM, I cannot announce realistically the number of gold medals until after the final selection (where) I can gauge better.
“I can only tell you if out of the 488 events we participate in the Sukma 2024, and if we can win 50 per cent of it, then we will be the champion. Of course, we have the home advantages and supporters, which can be our strength.”
Rentap said the athletes will get used to the nine venues allocated for the games across the whole State and interact with the local community to get comfortable and know their turf, the people and vice versa.
He said they also want to do a simulation on every selected athlete and their sports to ensure that they can win.
“This is for Malaysian sports. We try to create athletes for Malaysia. That is the strategy for Malaysia, but as for Sarawak, we want to win,” he added.
Rentap also hoped the facilities and venues will be ready in time so that the selected athletes could adapt to their home turf. He estimated that the facilities and venues are presently 70 per cent ready or completed.
“I also hope my 36 assistant CDMs can help me and ensure that the athletes under their management are training according to plan and ready for the games.
“As of now, Sarawak has 1,200 athletes training in various sports. Out of that, a total of 1,000 athletes would be finally selected, to participate in Sukma 2024 from Aug 17 to 24,” he said.
Also present at the press conference was Sarawak Public Communications Unit (Ukas) director Samuel Simon. — DayakDaily
